Using oxygen to disinfect businesses and homes

Madison Olsen, co-founder of Clearzone, disinfects a home in London, Ont.

London, Ont. — It's called an ozone machine, a device that is typically used to disinfect items and spaces, and it has set a pair of London entrepreneurs on a new course.

“What it does is it converts oxygen into highly ionized molecules that are ready to attack virus, bacteria and anything that’s in the air and on surfaces,” says Clearzone Co-Founder Jenessa Olsen.

Jenessa and her sister Madison Olsen became familiar with ozone machines, because they use them in their online clothing-rental business, STMT, to disinfect garments.

Once COVID-19 hit, STMT had to be put on hold due to a lack of clothing rental for events, but that’s when Jenessa and Madison started looking outside the box.

"As entrepreneurs, we are always looking to innovate and stay on top of what’s happening and how we can help people in this specific situation stay safe when they continue to work,” says Madison, Clearzone co-founder.

After researching the machines, the pair found that ozone is proven to kill virus' such as SARS, MRSA and other virus strains.

That’s when the sisters decided to create a new company called Clearzone, using their existing machines to help disinfect businesses and homes.

“Oxygen is one of the best cleaning agents and ozone is actually 3,000 times more oxidizing than chlorine, which we all correlate with cleanliness and cleaning,” explains Jenessa.

The Olsens say the new venture is already taking off and their team has been disinfecting spaces now for several weeks. In fact, they’ve added more ozone machines to their fleet and have even started hiring some staff.

“We are obviously very concerned about health and keeping people safe, but we are also concerned about the health of the economy,” says Jenessa. “So if there is any way to create jobs to give people a way to earn during this time that’s definitely something we want to participate in.”

The next steps for the company is to start franchising it out to other cities. The hopes are to expand and grow across the country.

CTV News can't independently verify that this process can kill COVID-19.